From the early age of 7, Derek Block has been playing music nearly his whole life. A former Naz student who majored in Music Business, he eventually found his way to working for the world famous House of Guitars right here in Monroe County. Derek has been working for the House of Guitars for seven years now as a sales person with people such as Dick Robinson, the person I interviewed for my secondary interview who not only repairs but builds custom guitars for a variety of musicians.
Derek listens and plays a wide variety of music ranging from death metal to classical to country; a very well rounded musician. He says his dad got him into listening to rock n’ roll at a young age when he’d listen to his records and at 14 years old, he got into classic rock and learned to play the bass guitar. He says as he is 27 years old now, he is “a product of the emo age” and listens to bands like Circus Survive.
He has also had the privilege of meeting various famous musicians such as Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde from the band Primus and even got free tickets to their show later that evening. He has also met Simon Townsend and Zach Starkey from The Who. Although he thinks it’s awesome to have met big musicians, he claims he likes it more when he meets smaller, local bands as to him its a bigger deal and more personal.
When he isn’t working, however, Derek is often rehearsing with his band, Alien Autopsy, a 1990’s style death metal band. Currently, due to the pandemic, Derek explains that musicians are getting the short end of the stick in all of this as venues are closed and will be for the foreseeable future. He believes, however, that although venues are closed, with all the time musicians have on their hands now that many have taken the opportunity to record; himself and his band included. As I stated earlier, Dick Robinson said he has made Derek a guitar that he uses with his band and is currently using in their recording sessions.
For Derek, working at the House of Guitars is a very fun and relaxed job as he gets to work with the very thing he loves most: Music. He records with his band in the state of the art recording studio in the basement of the store; a hidden treasure of the House of Guitars that I was given the privilege to take a tour of with Derek himself.
